Letter to the editor of Ambassador of Ukraine to the UK Natalia Galibarenko regarding the report “The Global Liveability Report 2017” prepared by the Economist Intelligence Unit.

Сьогодні, 18:51

Dear Sir,

I am writing with regard to the report “The Global Liveability Report 2017” prepared by the Economist Intelligence Unit.

I don’t want to question the criteria under which my capital, Kyiv, was placed among the biggest decliners which I truly regret. However, I would like to draw your attention to the fact that there is no civil war in Ukraine as mentioned in the report.

In fact, the whole civilized world, including all the leading international organizations, namely UN, OSCE and Council of Europe, has already acknowledged that there is the Kremlin’s wide scale military aggression in Eastern Ukraine which started in 2013. It was also clearly stated in the 2016 annual report of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court.

As of today, the Russian army group in the certain areas of Donetsk and Luhansk regions is armed with at least 475 tanks, 948 armoured combat vehicles, 762 artillery systems, 208 multiple launch rocket systems. Russia has deployed a 38.000 strong force in Donbas, consisting of two army corps. 6.000 of these are Russian Armed Forces regular personnel, dedicated to command, control and maintain sophisticated weaponry.

The very existence of the terrorist military organizations and so-called “DNR” and ”LNR” in the certain areas of Donetsk and Luhansk region would be impossible without Russian financial aid and military support.

The Russian aggression in Ukraine has led to least 10 thousand people killed and 1,5 million of those who became internally displaced persons.

The Kremlin has been constantly sabotaging a peace process under the Minsk agreements and today uses all in its power to further separate the occupied territories from Ukraine.

Thus, I call on you not to name the military conflict between the Russian Federation and Ukraine on the Ukrainian territories of Donetsk and Luhansk regions as a “civil war” and remove the reference of such in the Report. Inaccuracy of such wording creates a false and misleading reader’s perception of what is going on in Eastern Ukraine.

Sincerely,
Natalia Galibarenko

Ambassador of Ukraine to the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland